Powers of Persuasion: The Inside Story of British Advertising

During the second half of the 20th century advertising in Britain led the world. In those years advertising boosted economic growth and peoples' affluence. It reached its peak as a proportion of the Gross National Product and increasingly came to touch upon almost every aspect of every individual's life. At the same time the advertising industry was frequently under siege, as politicians, pressure groups, and others constantly sought to restrain its influence--and often succeeded.

Yet no history of British advertising covering this heady period has previously been published. During the 1970s and 1980s British advertising creativity led the world. But Powers of Persuasion is not just about advertisements-- it is about advertising. In the second half of the last century Britain was also a world leader in setting industry benchmarks--innovating the disciplines of account planning and market research, setting the standard for public service advertising, launching global advertising awards festivals, introducing the best system of advertising regulation, setting up the world's largest advertising archive, and the most comprehensive on-line advertising research databank in the world. All these were the keystones on which British creativity was build. Simultaneously, British advertising companies--particularly Saatchi & Saatchi and WPP--took their place among the world's greatest.

Powers of Persuasion tells the authoritative story of this dynamic, exhilarating era, with pen portraits of the personalities involved, anecdotes, case histories, and essential data. Written from the inside by one of the industry's leaders, it is a book for advertising specialists and the general public alike.